St. Ita's Hospital

Located at the North East edge of the town at Hayes's field at Gortboy, the hospital was originally the work house here in Newcastle West and was opened in 1841. Thomas Deene from Cork was the main contractor, and the contract for the building was for the sum of £7,850 and the building was to cater for 550 inmates.

The plan of the building was intended to be of the cheapest description - compatible with durability. The walls were of limestone rubble masonry, white washed on the inside but unflustered. The ground floors were of mortar and clay and the upper floors of timber, with raised sleeping platforms on either side of a well.

Later it was thought that the ground floors should be flagged. The exterior stone walls with iron railings and gates were built in front of a ditch of clay and stones at the rear. Separate yards for males and females were laid out and finished with paving channels. It covered an electoral area of 207 miles, Abbeyfeale, Ardagh, Ballingarry, Castletown, Dromcollogher, Kileedy, Kilmeedy, Mahoonagh, Monagea and Newcastle West.

A master and matron were recruited, a doctor and teachers and chaplains phased in. Tenders or bills were accepted for items as miscellaneous as bedding, clothing, furniture, shoes, straw, stones, gravel, oatmeal, milk, bread, salt and horse-hire. Much of this was done before admissions. Also in advance of admissions details of a frugal diet were published, consisting of oatmeal stir about and new milk for breakfast, and potatoes and skimmed milk for dinner.

The "Poor Law Act" was established in 1843 it's function was "to aid the poor in Ireland", at a meeting held on 6th March 1841 it was decided that St. Ita's was to be "opened for the reception of paupers"

The first admissions followed on Monday, 15th March, 1841 with the intake of 72 year old Thomas Danielson of Killagholehane and two young Quinnlivan girls from Newcastle West. A further 54 people were admitted by 20th March and the ages ranged from 1-90 years. Some were clearly family admissions, in whole or in part. The first known death recorded was that of Mary Lynch 17th April 1841. In the 1840's, the workhouse was a forbidding place and probably was. Interesting to note that, not far away from St. Ita's is a graveyard where the dead for the hospital were carried to finally rest in peace. There is a cross erected here, which dates back to 1861. A plaque in the graveyard commemorates Paddy Flanagan, buried in the graveyard, 25th September 1868, the man who found the Ardagh Chalice . The grave yard itself is well kept, footpaths have been laid, and trees have been planted there. Victims of the Great Famine of 1847 - 1848 were buried here, together with people who had no graves. Mass is said here each year.

In the year 1919 a circular was issued indicating that the Poor Law unions should be abolished and that selected hospital work houses be converted into county hospitals and county homes. It was decided that the workhouse in Newcastle west was to come under the control of Limerick County Council and subsequently under limerick's health Authority and by vintage of the Health Act 1970 the Mid Western Health Board. Major renovations and alterations have taken place since 1971. The government published a report on the elderly in 1988 entitled "The Years ahead" and in line with the report and a subsequent meeting in Newcastle West on 7 April 1989 held by the board, a short stay Assessment Rehabilities Unit with day hospital facilities at St. Ita's was enabled. The necessary implementations were established and the first phase of the unit became operational on 25th September that same year.

[Churchtown Graveyard]   [Desmond Castle]   [Fullers Folly]    [The Parish Hall]  

[Church of Immaculate Conception]   [The Military Occupation]   [The Railway]   [Courthouse]

[Carnegie Library}

Home